Cobb County plan to give students laptops hits another snag

Study of proposal funded by Apple

Posted: Sunday, April 17, 2005

By Associated Press

MARIETTA - A much-debated plan by Cobb County educators to spend more than $100 million on student laptops ran into more controversy when a local newspaper revealed that a study on the proposal is being funded by Apple Computer.

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The county school board voted last Wednesday to order an evaluation study by the University of Georgia to decide whether the county should spend $100.8 million to give laptop computers to every high school student in the suburban county.

Cobb Superintendent Joe Redden pitched the study, but left out one detail: a computer company arranged for UGA to conduct the study and not the school district. The Marietta Daily Journal reported the Apple financing Saturday.

"For Apple to pay for it, that would be questionable," said board member Curt Johnston, who voted for the study but learned of Apple's involvement later.

The school board voted 4-2 to start buying laptops in phases. At first, according to the plan, 7,100 teachers and 8,700 students at four of Cobb's 14 high schools would get Apple G4 iBooks at an estimated cost of $25 million.

Redden told the board that no more students or teachers would get laptops until the UGA College of Education studied the effectiveness of the laptops.